On synthesis of nanocrystalline Ti-B/Ti-B-N phases in a hypersonic plasma jet

The present work reported a novel way of direct and quick making nanocrystalline Ti-B/Ti-B-N phases out of amorphous boron powder (B) and crystalline titanium (Ti). Nanopowders were obtained by the synthesis in a hypersonic plasma jet. This method is based on the use of a coaxial magnetoplasma accelerator as a plasma generator. The accelerated plasma jet flew to a working chamber filled in argon in the first experiment and nitrogen in the second experiment. The synthesized powders were analyzed by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) method. The XRD analysis showed that the products mainly contain boride of titanium and diboride of titanium. The preferential content of borides in the products compared with diboride is explained by the certain ratio of boron and titanium for respective phases in accordance with the Ti-B state diagram.